


A Garden of Evil

by Im_Not_A_Robot



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Comics), Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Bonding, Feel-good, Flowers, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Happy, No Romance, Slice of Life, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-11-02 02:53:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20597546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Im_Not_A_Robot/pseuds/Im_Not_A_Robot
Summary: When Eggman's beloved garden starts dying, the villain wounds up in a state of depression. Metal Sonic takes it upon himself to find out just what is killing his master's garden and seeks to fix the problem in hopes of cheering the doctor up and bringing him back to his perky self again.





	A Garden of Evil

"Ohh I just don't understand... " A dejected Eggman wistfully mourned, scratching at his head questioningly.

"I looked after them so well for so long and they were perfectly healthy just a week ago." he circled around his hillside base, situated just a ways from a natural reservoir in the local wooded area.

This was his get-away base where he would come to have time for himself and relax, away from scheming and villainy to take part in his other favourite hobbies. Gardening helped to clear his head during rough times, and he had cultivated quite the beautiful terrace out of it. It was his secret passion, one that he guarded fiercely and nobody other than Metal Sonic knew of it... along with some other minor badnik robots that wandered about the little home base to preform menial chores and upkeep.

Said blue robot was curiously accompanying the pensive man who knelt to examine his flowers within his gloved hand, the plants having withered tremendously in only a matter of days. Eggman sighed with sorrow; he worked so hard on this garden and now he can't figure out what's wrong with it. 

"Am I watering them too much maybe?..." he questions with a finger to his chin.

The man sighed "Ohh, what's the use...." Metal watched indifferently as his master sulked, overlooking his dying garden. "I've tried everything. Different fertilizer, vitamin water, even a special botanical concoction of my own genius creation..... but nothing is working." the villain's voice cracked, betraying just how deeply attached he was to his beloved flowers.

The robot watched as his sullen master depressingly walked back to reenter the house, a gloomy hunch in his posture.

Metal's eyes inclined to the large interconnected flowerbeds before him. He's never seen his master this upset before, even after being defeated by Sonic for the umpteenth time. The behaviour was different and not in a good way... he didn't like it. He zoomed his gaze in through one of the house's windows in view... Eggman sitting down to sulk in his recliner, bringing a little moto-bug badnik onto his lap to pet it as some kind of therapeutic means of dealing with his now crestfallen mood.

Metal looked back to the withering flowers, tilting his head. He activated his scanners but couldn't detect anything apparent from just looking at them. His eyes once again fell upon the depressed scientist through the window. The robot seemed to hesitate a thought process before finally making the decision to solve this issue in hopes to make his master happy again. Powering up his jet, he set off to find the nearest civilization.

It wasn't before too long that he happened upon one of the villages in the valleys, his first objective being to find some sort of library. Gardening and information involving gardening were not in his database, he had no use for it ever, but now he needed it more than anything if he wants to cure his master's depression. 

The village folk gave him odd looks, some strange, some curious and some fearful. Robots aren't very common in these parts as inventors and engineers are few and far in between, but nobody outright attacked; not recognizing just who he belongs to. Eggman has made it well and clear to keep his reputation from spreading to certain places in order to retain the capability of relaxing in peace, these valleys were just a few of those places, far enough away from where he usually preforms his typical villain activities. This made it much easier for Metal to traverse the village without any hindrances.

Eventually he found the library, the decaying wood of it's structure visibly showing it's age. Most villages construct their library in early development to retain history... Metal still doesn't understand this tradition of organics as the past means nothing to him, only the present and future. He swung open the library doors and immediately got to work in searching for something that could help him.

Only a few mobians were here, seated at nicely carved tables with their faces buried in books, a couple of them looked up to eye him with slight concern, but nothing further was done - the robot was free to browse through the shelves. Unfortunately, his scanners being useless in search of what he was looking for, he had to find the books manually. It was a very odd and frustrating game of charades to the librarian to help him find what he was looking for. Thankfully she was patient and happily guided him to the crafts & hobbies section where he found books on gardening.

He quickly took each and every single one he found off of the shelves, completely depriving them of all gardening literature. The librarian lady, a middle-aged pelican, was startled when the robot dropped all 26 books to sign them out.

"I'm afraid I can't let you sign out all of these." she said with a sympathetic smile. Metal flinched in confusion.

She smiled patiently. "What if someone else wants to sign out a gardening book? If you take them all, there won't be any left. It's only kind to be considerate of others."

Metal stared down at the large pile of books on the desk for an extended moment as if processing her words and thinking of his next course of action. His eyes suddenly snapped back to glare at the bird. He slowly... and threateningly... raised a clawed hand towards her, causing her face to drop in fear and her face to grow pale.

The robot then slapped the hand down onto one of the books, grabbing it, then zipping to the back of the library to put the one book back before returning back to the desk in a flash. He stared expectantly to the librarian whose eyes were wide in surprise. 

She continued to stare for a few moments longer, then down at the pile of the now-remaining 25 books before taking a breath and sighing, a patient smile once again forming over her beak.

"... Would you like a bag?" she asked.

\----

Metal had hoarded all of the books in his little maintenance room at the home base. It was kind of like a bedroom... but with no bed, just a charging station.... that his master had prettied up with pink floral patterns that he painted on himself... the robot doesn't mind. What did bother him though was the onesie his master gave him covered in the Eggman Logo... which he had promptly incinerated the day after. Sometimes his master can be so degrading.

The robot had set up a little nest of the books, reading and scanning through each one, every page only taking 10 seconds each to absorb the information into his data banks... but these were a lot of pages.... and there were a lot of books. It eventually went on all throughout the afternoon and well into the evening. The robot wasn't on the last book until night. When he was all done, he tidied everything up and put the books back into the bag the librarian had given him in order to transport them more easily.

He hid the bag in his closet and promptly made his leave from his room to the main parts of the house. There were a couple of lamps on and Metal could faintly hear the generator humming in the basement, but his master was no where in sight. It was far too late to apply his knowledge to the garden and he'd have to wait until morning. He almost tripped over a little caterkillar on his way to the kitchen, the blue robot requiring his nightly oil tune-ups.

There he found Eggman drinking some hot tea at the table, still looking as down as ever in his evil pajamas. Metal walked over to approach just behind his master. Despite the subtle but noticeable clanking of his metal 'shoes' on the kitchen tiles, Eggman seemed to not notice his presence, likely lost in thoughts obsessively worrying over his plants.

Metal tugged on the pantleg of the scientist, finally getting his attention as the man glumly looked down to the blue badnik. 

"Oh... what is it Metal?" he questioned as if he hadn't done this routine every night.

The robot tilted his head, being unable to speak was annoying but his master usually knows immediately the nightly routine.

The man lowered a brow in confusion chalking up to the robot just wanting attention. He turned away to stare back into his cup of tea, all the while Metal was a little peeved at this. The robot walked over to the sink where he opened the cupboard beneath it and pulled out the bottle of oil lubricant. He carried it back over to the table just behind Eggman and struggled with some effort to reach on the tip of his toes, placing the bottle on the table in his master's view.

The scientist looked at it for a moment before he remembered. "Oooh. Yes, that's right, your nightly joint maintenance. I can't believe I forgot... I must really be out of it today, silly me." the man stood up from the table and took the bottle in hand. Metal held out his arms in a T pose like he always would.

The scientist subsequently knelt down and began to add the lubricant onto the robots joints as per routine. This was done on a nightly basis to prevent wearing damage on the badnik's seams which would potentially inhibit mobility and even cause sensory distress from the mech's perception module, an overload of electrical signals not unlike pain for organics.

When the man was finished he left the robot to drop his arms and test his articulation as he put the bottle back under the sink and in the cupboard. Metal eventually turned to look at his master, noting that he still looked glum. The robot simply doesn't understand how a garden could affect someone so strongly, it was honestly kind of ridiculous but perhaps when you spend so much time growing and caring for something, seeing it die even when it's a plant must be relatively similar to, say, a close friend... at least he theorizes.

Eggman didn't say another word as he sat back down at the table to finish his tea. Metal decided he would take his leave to his charging station, deciding it for the best to let the man alone. He'll fix it all tomorrow morning... hopefully...

\----

And morning eventually did come, Metal waking early as usual to full battery life. He can recharge on his own when entering sleep mode, but to reach full charge from that can take a whole day. Connecting himself to his charging station only takes 7 to 8 hours, thus it is more efficient. 

He glanced over his room, sunlight streaming in through the window onto the carpeted floor. He always loved how tidy it was in this room as well as how empty and spacious. Back at the main base or even on the airship he doesn't have his own room like this to himself to call his own, so he enjoys the month-long vacations here. His master is also much nicer to him here as well, not barking orders and high-strung about every little thing. Not that the robot can't handle it, it was just nicer...

His eyes eventually fell to the bag of books sitting in his open closet. He had almost forgotten his goal but he was quick to react and disconnected from his charging station to step out of his room, making sure to close the door quietly. He silently snuck through the house to get to the front door, tip-toeing carefully and using his scanners to detect anything on the floor that might make noise should he hit or step on it. Eggman could be heard snoring loudly in his own room, and you'd think for a man who was such a light-sleeper that he'd wake himself up like that... but no... loud snoring a-okay.... dropping a pin to the floor... wakes him up like a nuclear explosion.

The robot finally made it safely to the front door and made his exit, swerving around back to the side of the house where the garden was. Now it was time to get serious. He zipped to the front of the garden in a dramatic battle-ready pose, claws at the ready and eyes rapidly scanning every plant, applying his targeting system to each and every withered part noticeable on every flowerbed.

He flashed to each spot, snipping the dead parts with his claws like scissors on each plant with the unnatural speeds he's known for. Snapping from one plant to the next in an instant multiple times and then speeding off to the back shed and practically teleporting with insane speeds back to the flowers, a hand-shovel in his grasp. He immediately began to dig out and remove any and all weeds and deceased plants.

However... he halted upon the strangest sight as he dug into the dirt. 

Metal's eyes shifted to the strange coloured little creature, the thing trying to escape further into the dirt. The robot picked it up between his claws and brought it closer for inspection. A bright purple worm of some sort. He searched through his system recordings of biological lifeforms he passively scans, but he didn't have any information on this one.

He scanned the creature that writhed and twisted in his grasp, his readings determining a hypothesis of the lifeform via biological and DNA data. Some kind of invasive species not native to this location it would seem... feeds entirely off of plant roots and lives underneath the dirt....

Metal tossed the worm aside and continued to dig into the dirt further for investigation. He found another one of them... then another... and another! Two more! Five more! The robot stood back overviewing the flowerbeds. He found it... the source to his master's garden problem. An invasive root-eating worm. These disgusting purple creatures were the cause of his master's despair... and he would destroy them all.

The robot scanned through his database for information he learned from his library books, a solution revealing itself. He headed back inside of the home base, once again quietly stepping from room to room, making his way to the kitchen. Once he reached the kitchen he bee-lined to the cupboard under the sink once again only this time pulling out a bottle of liquid soap. He grabbed a couple of other chemical items and constructed a chemical solution recipe using his gathered data, perfecting a homemade insecticide.

He had filled a watering can with this solution and struggled for a moment to carry the large can back outside, the object not entirely made for his size. The real problem was trying to be quiet as he snuck through the house and not spill it, thankfully his system environmental calibrations were up to date and he managed just fine stepping out the front door.

He went from each interconnected flowerbed and carefully watered each with the solution, his eyes gleaming with glee at the inevitable destruction of his tiny purple enemies, staring down wickedly at the pooling waters. He continued this process until the can was completely emptied and every flowerbed was treated. He placed his hands on his hips and looked over the garden with pride before heading back inside.

This routine watering with his own insecticide continued in secret throughout the week until the robot noticed improvement upon the garden's health, colour coming back into them. Unfortunately his master was still mournful about his garden and refused to check up on it anymore or even look at it since having lost hope and not wanting to see it perish before his eyes, so the man had no idea that the plants were improving to the machine's dismay.

Metal Sonic remained patient however and continued to treat and nurture the plants on his master's behalf until they were nearing the end of their month-long vacation at the get-away base. The robot finalizing his last watering session gazed upon the flourishing garden. The flowers were bright and colourful once again, lush and green were all the stems and leaves; his insecticide did the trick as he dug gently around the soil to find no sight of the purple nuisances.

He nodded his head at the garden, allowing himself to be proud of his accomplishment before making his way back into the house. He looked for his master, peeking from room to room until he found him in the laundry room preparing to wash all of his outfits before the leave. He was examining a blanket when he heard the clanking steps of the robot, turning to find him standing in the doorway.

"Do you think I should wash the blankets today or tomorrow?" Eggman questioned out loud to the robot, manipulating the sheet in his hands as if it would help him determine what decision to make.

Metal shrugged at the man before motioning for him to 'come here'. The scientist giving the robot a quizzical look. "What is it?" the man asked, his first thought being that one of the other badniks were malfunctioning or causing trouble.

Metal stepped away from the door waiting for his master to follow him, said man putting the blanket back in it's basket before walking over to the robot. Metal lead his master through the house before he brought him out through the front door. "Did something happen?" Eggman asked with stern concern, anticipating some kind of problem.

The robot just kept walking around to the side of the house where he stopped in front of the garden, turning around to look at his master. Eggman's eyes lit up upon the sight of his flourishing garden. "Oh my!" he exclaimed as he practically ran over to his flowers.

"They're healthy again! Oh but- How did- Ho ho! They're alive and well again!" the man was absolutely ecstatic to see that his beloved cultivation was once again thriving, his face and demeanor completely doing a 180 as he returned to his zealous and expressive self again, hopping from one flowerbed to the next.

"Oh and LOOK, the roses are healthy again too!" he knelt down to examine the plants closer, all the while Metal stood off to the side, holding his hands behind his back in a calm posture as he gleefully watched the excitement radiating off of his master now that his treasured garden was healthy again.

"Hmm, I wonder if it was just some kind of temporary sickness of sorts... or some kind of fungus...." the man groomed his moustache in thought as he examined the plants finding no sign of distress.

"Well then! I'm glad it's all well and good again, ooh I'm so happy now! I'm going to add some beautiful daisies to this garden. But first things first, to fetch my tools." Eggman walked back towards the house, patting Metal on the head as he walked by. "Come now Metal, you're going to help me plant them."

The robot nodded, the lack of expression concealing the overwhelming joy he felt to see his master back to his old self again. He followed after Eggman and the two spent the rest of the day planting daisies and picking out the best spots in the garden for them.


End file.
